On October 19th we celebrated Duwamish Alive Day with events at North Green River Park and White Center Heights Park. For 13 years, Duwamish Alive Day has been a regional day of habitat restoration events organized by the Duwamish Alive Coalition whose collaborative efforts aim to improve the health of the Green-Duwamish Watershed. This year, there were events at 19 sites from Auburn to Seattle along the Green-Duwamish River Watershed with hundreds of volunteers digging in to restore and preserve our areas of native habitat. A heart-felt THANK YOU to everyone who dug in, pulled weeds, mulched, and picked up litter. Since the day coincided with Orca Recovery Day, we also thank you on behalf of the Orca.
To celebrate the fact that is year is the first year a Duwamish Alive restoration event has occurred in White Center, Council Member Joe McDermott showed up to support the important work volunteers do for these parks and natural areas. As a reward for their efforts, participants took home seedlings to plant in their own yards.
Several other partners helped make this day a great success: Theari Leng from the White Center Community Development Association spoke about the need for diverse leadership and wisdom in restoring the land and Dirt Corps shared their resources and expertise earned through hosting community tree giveaways.
While the volunteer crew was smaller at North Green River Park, their efforts will make a big difference for the health of the local community. It was a wonderful event and now we are 125 trees closer to our one million tree goal. Thanks heaps!
If you’re bummed out you missed all the fun – don’t fret – there’re plenty more opportunities! Be sure to save the date for January 20, Martin Luther King Day of Service where we will host a volunteer habitat restoration (more plantings and park improvement – whoo!) project at Dick Thurnau Memorial Park. Check out our volunteer event calendar to see where your help is needed.
